The Abyss
The Abyss is the fifth and final level of L.A. Meltdown in Duke Nukem 3D. Summary A pretty cool level in all with an earthquake, an old south-west American Indian temple, a lava pit, and the Battlelord's alien space ship which seems to have crash landed into the lava pit. Secrets # Right before you get to a flamepit about 1/3 of the way into the level, if you turn around backwards, you will see some Pipebombs sitting in a darkened corner. To the left of the pipebombs is a section of wall that protrudes out. If you "use" this wall, it will open up a door and some steroids will be in there. Go collect the steroids for the first secret of the level. # Right after the first secret is a fairly easy second secret. You go through the fire in the pit which is also a teleporter (You'll still take a bit of damage as you go through). You will be teleported to a secret room, where your appearance will give you the second secret for this level. # The third secret is inside the room you are left in for Secret #2. If you look around the room, you will see an elevated ledge with an RPG on it. Go grab the RPG to collect the secret. # The fourth secret takes some work to get to. After you make it out of the puzzle room where you're shrunk, and you start to make your way through the lava canyon, you need to wait. Normally you'd go straight through the lava canyon, but on the right, you will see a "lava waterfall" with a series of ledges that go up. The start of this path is shown here. You need to do a lot of hopping in this sequence.you need to continue to follow this path started with the hopping. There is no way to get lost, it only goes one way (unless you fall down into the lava and get swept back to the start). When you get to the top of the path, you will see where the lava waterfall starts. To your right is a crack in the wall. Blow it out with a pipebomb or a rocket, and it will open up another path you need to follow. Once you follow it, you will eventually be led back to an area near the start of the level. At this point you probably will want to go back on the path you took to get this secret, otherwise you'll have to go through the rest of the level to get back to where this secret started. # If you take the path back from where you were at the end of secret four, you will want to stop at the place where the lava river starts. On the other side of the river is a small platform with a hand on it. Go there and "use" the hand. Doing that will open a wall to the left of the hand. Jump in there and follow a lava river upstream (which can hurt if you don't have any boots). After a short path, you will come to a rock platform. Jump onto that, and follow it. It will lead downward into a cave where a babe is dancing all by herself. Why she would be dancing on her own inside a cave with nobody around? Who knows... # The final secret of the level is near the large silver door towards the end of the level. If you don't go through it immediately, you can open up a secret door on the wall to the right. Open the door, and go in there. Following the path will lead you to an area outside the aliens' spaceship that will give you the sixth and final secret in this level. There is also an Atomic health in this room you can collect if you need it. # (World Tour only) The secret exit to Faces of Death. In the circular area just before you go into to fight the Battlelord a section containing chaingun ammo will open up. Go into that section and press against the wall which will open up and reveal the secret exit to Faces Of Death. This exit is present in the earlier PC version too but unlike the World Tour version the wall does not open so the player cannot normally get to this level. Easter eggs 1) As you venture through the old Indian village, you shall easily notice that the shrink ray-bursts are coming from a pulsating green plant-like entity in a narrow crack, just after the Indian village environment turns to hellish environment. Use your jetpack (you can get it legit from Launch Facility), fly to this crack from where the shrinker bursts are coming. Once inside, you shall notice a writing on the wall: "YOU'RE NOT SUPPOSED TO BE HERE. LEVELORD" Levelord is the nickname of one of the designers, who made most of the levels for Duke Nukem 3D, and later, a few Quake 3 Arena maps. 2) You are going to need a jetpack for this one, if you want to see this hidden Easter Egg in its full glory (otherwise you'll die). Near the entrance to the huge alien ship, you had to cross yet another hellish environment, jumping across standing rock columns above the lava. Drop down to the very bottom of the lava pit from near the location you came from, and activate jetpack in the very last moment, thus you'll stay alive. At one of the rock walls, there is a hidden message on the wall: "DOPEFISH LIVES!" Unquestionably, this message is a HUGE reference to the Commander Keen series, created by ID Software. At Commander Keen episode 4 (Secret of the Oracle), there was an unique underwater level featuring the "second most stupid being in the known universe" - the Dopefish (this particular enemy grew a surprisingly high cult, and even earned a very own website, being a very common Easter Egg in many games). At the early stages of Duke Nukem 3D's development, when the Sharks were put inside the game, there was a hidden cheat code, which would change all the Sharks into Dopefishes. Later, the Sharks were removed from the game for a surprisingly long period, but the developers decided to put back them. Alas, Dopefish was left out, so this message is all that left from this big plan. 3) In the secret area with the dancing girl, there are some cleverly hidden letters on the right wall saying "SUYT" (an acronym for "Show us your tits). On the Nintendo 64 port 'YOU'RE NOT SUPPOSED TO BE HERE' and 'SUYT have been removed and instead of 'DOPEFISH LIVES' it says 'WHAT'S YOUR BEEF SPECCY' E1L5 easter egg 1.png|Easter egg #1 E1L5 easter egg 2.png|Easter egg #2 E1L5 easter egg 3.png|Easter egg #3 Bugs With straferunning or Steroids, it is possible to re-enter the boss door before it closes all the way. It will not re-close, allowing you to fight the boss from the elevator room. Achievements (Megaton Edition only) Piece of Cake: Finishing the Level on any difficulty unlocks this achievement. Speedrun Screenshots eduke32 2018-10-21 16-18-34-140.png eduke32 2018-10-21 16-19-02-332.png eduke32 2018-10-21 16-20-59-780.png eduke32 2018-10-21 16-21-24-642.png eduke32 2018-10-21 16-22-18-706.png eduke32 2018-10-21 16-24-57-336.png|Secret #2 eduke32 2018-10-21 16-25-53-046.png eduke32 2018-10-21 16-26-26-058.png|Shrinker eduke32 2018-10-21 16-29-36-632.png eduke32 2018-10-21 16-33-16-192.png|Secret #5 eduke32 2018-10-21 16-34-14-515.png eduke32 2018-10-21 16-37-13-380.png eduke32 2018-10-21 16-38-39-115.png eduke32 2018-10-21 16-38-49-496.png|Entrance to the boss room eduke32 2018-10-21 16-39-02-106.png Trivia * This level contains an exit button that can be used to reach Faces of Death. Except in the 20th Anniversary Edition, it is not accessible without cheating. See the "Redundant Exit Buttons" section of the exit button page or see the Faces of Death page for more information. * The fight with the Battlelord at the end of this level is referenced in the Duke Nukem Forever opening. * This is level with the most Atomic Healths in the game, having 14 of them. * It is the only level in the entire game where ammo and health is affected by higher skill levels: on skill 3, an extra pistol clip, two shotgun shells boxes, five chaingun ammo boxes, and two RPG rockets crates appear. External links * The 3D Realms walkthrough for "The Abyss" Category:Duke Nukem 3D levels